That came in Neptune's plea;
He ask'd the waves, and ask'd the felon winds,
What hard mishap hath doom'd this gentle swain ?
And question'd every gust of rugged wings
That blows from off each beaked promontory:

90

They knew not of his story,

95

And sage Hippotades their answer brings,
That not a blast was from his dungeon stray'd,

The air was calm, and on the level brine

Sleek Panope with all her sisters play'd.

It was that fatal and perfidious bark,

100

Built in th' eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark, That sunk so low that sacred head of thine.

Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge, Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 105 Like to that sanguine flow'r inscrib'd with woe. Ah! Who hath reft (quoth he) my dearest pledge?

Last came, and last did go,

The pilot of the Galilean lake;

110

Two massy keys he bore of metals twain,
(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain)
He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake,
How well could I have spar'd for thee, young

swain,

Enow of such as for their bellies' sake
Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold? 115
Of other care they little reckoning make,
Than how to scramble at the shearer's feast,
And shove away the worthy bidden guest;
Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how

to hold

A sheep-hook, or have learn'd aught else the least That to the faithful herdman's art belongs! What recks it them? What need they? They are

sped;

And when they list, their lean and flashy songs

110 Two]

'In either hand she held a massie key,
The one of beaten burnish'd gold,
That in her left of swarthy iron is.'

...

....

121

Beaumont's Psyche, c. xvi. st. 140, and 141.

110 keys] Fletcher's Purple Island, c. vii. 62.
Not in his lips, but hands two keys he bore,
Heaven's doors and Hell's to shut and open wide.'

and Dante Paradiso, v. 57. E della chiave.

115 climb] 'Crept into the fold.' Prose Works, ii. 381, ed. Symmons.

121 herdman's] Milton writes it 'herdsman,' in his MS.. Herdman,' is used in our transl. of the Bible, Amos i. 1.

Todd.

VOL. III.

K

On whose fresh lap the swart-star sparely looks:
Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes,
That on the green turf suck the honied showers,
And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. 141
Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies,
The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,
The white pink, and the pansy freak'd with jet,
The glowing violet,

145

The musk-rose, and the well-attir'd woodbine, With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, And every flower that sad embroidery wears:

Bid amarantus all his beauty shed,

And daffadillies fill their cups with tears,
To strow the laureate herse where Lycid lies.
For so to interpose a little ease,

150

Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise. Ay me! Whilst thee the shores, and sounding seas Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurl'd, 1:5

Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides,
Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide
Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world;
Or whether thou to our moist vows denied,
Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old,

160

138 swart] See Warton's note on this word.
153 dally] Gayton's Chartæ Scriptæ, p. 21.
When our fond thoughts are wearied with the sports
O th' earth, we dally in the watry coasts.'

158 monstrous] The sea, the world of monsters. Hor. Od.

i. 3. 18. Virg. Æn. vi. 729.

• Quæ marmoreo fert monstra sub æquore pontus.'

Warton.